A Memorable Tale

4 | The Marauder's Map

"This is miserable," I mumbled as I joined my fellow Ravenclaws at the table.

"Not used to the work load?" Cho asked.

"Not used to the fact that the stairs tried to kill me, actually. And I went the wrong way because I was reading. Thank goodness the Grey Lady guided me back." And the fact that there's a missing library book in my room that disappears every time I mention returning it.

"You were reading while walking through the halls?" Morag let out a quiet giggle behind her hand. "Your quite the bookworm, Griffin."

"If you're comparing me to animals, I'd like to be a book dragon."

Padma's brow raised. "Like, all the books you keep hoarded in our room?"

Were Padma and I friends? By that point, I'd like to think so. It was already Halloween, it was bound to happen. We did sleep closest to each other in our shared room.

However, we don't see eye-to-eye on many things, one of those being my unhealthy obsession with owning books but not reading books. Not only that, but I need those books to solve a mystery, thank you very much.

She, on the other hand, was as studious as she was neat, all of her textbooks in the order of her classes on her shelf and her quills all contained in boxes when not in use. She even had a wand stand... who does that?

I noticed Cho ogling a boy seated at the Hufflepuff table. He was generically attractive, with a jawline that could grate cheese and kept brown hair. "Who are you staring at?"

"Hm? No one."

"Cedric Diggory," Roger Davies corrected. "Looker, ain't he?"

I doubled back to take in his features and shrugged. "Relatively."

Cho's face flushed red. "I wasn't ogling at him," she insisted.

"Hopefully not, that's my god brother after all."

She stared at me. "Your..."

"We've written letters to each other since we were small - had no idea he looked like that. Not like I've actually ever met him, but his dad and my dad met at some conference about the control of magical creatures, since my dad helped with the dementors in Azkaban. They hit it off immediately and when I was born, Amos Diggory was my god father."

I sighed.

"Mainly because my dad has no other friends."

"What about that Malfoy?" Mandy Brocklehurst asked, her now being the one to ogle at the average-at-best blond. "Your parents aren't close?"

"Business partners at best." I shrugged. "My dad has a lot of connections. Too many, actually. Not a lot of friends, though."

I looked behind me one more time, noticing that Hermione was missing from the Gryffindor table. "Give me a moment."

When I got to the group of justice-crazy ruffians, my hand slammed against the table between Harry and Ron. "Where's Hermione?"

"Why the bloody hell are you asking us?" Ron questioned, still holding bread in his mouth.

"I'm not asking him, I'm asking you. I saw you seated with her in Charms."

"Well, I don't know where she went."

I clicked my tongue and went out into the halls.

"Hermione!" I called, being careful of the routes that Filch normally took as he prowled the halls.

I clicked my tongue, not realizing that Professor Quirrell was speeding through the halls behind me. It wasn't until he crashed into me that I saw him, but he barely acknowledged my existence before continuing to the Great Hall.